Boyce describes 2011 as “one of the best years for athletics”

Jan 05, 2012 Sports

President of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), Colin Boyce has described 2011 as one of the best

Colin Boyce

years for local track and field with unprecedented successes on and off the track; he is of the view that the sport has garnered significant momentum.
Boyce was yesterday speaking to Kaieteur Sport, who had asked the AAG President to assess the sport’s performance last year. “I will consider 2011 to be one of the best years for athletics in the country; I think track and field enjoyed a successful year,” he said.
The AAG President made the claim primarily on the basis of Stephan James’s performance at the Pan American Junior Games in Florida and Winston George’s qualification for the 2012 London Olympic Games.
George qualified with the ‘B’ standard for the Olympics with his silver medal performance at the ALBA Games in Venezuela after clocking an astonishing 45.86 seconds that was below the 45.90s that is required for minimal qualification for the Games.
James turned in 47.27s in Florida for a personal best time in the 400m. Both George and James’s time came from athletes who live and train in Guyana, which made the performances special and added to the belief that the sport has definitely evolved.
“If I am to list the highpoints for us last year, it would certainly be James and George’s effort on the international scene and Aliann Pompey’s first major performance in Guyana since she rose to prominence; those were successful moments for us,” Boyce said.

Jevina Sampson

He listed United States-based Rolyce Boston bronze medal at Pan Am Juniors; Cleveland Forde dominance of the Caribbean circuit and the emergence of Euleen Josiah-Tanner as other areas of success for the sport in 2011. He said Guyanese athletes performed.
Forde brought second in the first stage of the South American 10km Road Race in Panama, but returned to the second stage in Guyana to dominate an impressive field. Forde not only ruled the roost in the event, but won both the Ainlim and Courts 10km races.
The distance-running king then proved that he is the best in the Caribbean when he was the only athlete from the region among two Kenyans across the finish line at the University of the West Indies’ Sports and Physical Education Centre Half Marathon in Trinidad and Tobago. Forde was third in a race that had all the premier distance running athletes in the Caribbean.
Then there was the 38-year-old Euleen Josiah-Tanner who burst on the scene last year when she won the CARICOM 10km Road Race. The US-based Josiah-Tanner followed that success with a win in the Courts 10k that relegated Alika Morgan to second place. Josiah-Tanner was second in the South American 10k, but was the first Caribbean female to finish. “You had those performances because we created the platform for them; we had new competitions with Courts and Ainlim coming onboard and we had of-course the continuation of the U-23 Games and the President’s/Jefford Classic,” Boyce said.
He also took the opportunity to underscore the fact that Guyana’s junior national athletics team was the only totally successful local team at the Inter-Guiana Games. The team won both female and male competitions after the title was taken from them the year before.
He noted that the AAG has been criticised in the past for ensuring that Guyana is represented on the international circuit as much as possible, but said those critics must be “biting their tongues” now with the kind of success Guyanese athletes are achieving generally.
Boyce said that his association has a structured programme to expose athletes. In that regard, he said that 2012 should see sprinters Quince Clarke, Rupert Perry and Winston George benefitting from training at the High Performance Centre in Trinidad or Jamaica.
Meanwhile, Forde is expected to get similar training in a high-altitude territory outside Guyana. Boyce indicated that the four senior athletes, among three juniors, namely, James, Jevina Straker, and Jevina Sampson are special talents that the association will place special emphasis on since it is imperative that they transition to greater international performances.
“We need to give track and field a chance. We have been doing it on our own for sometime now, but I think if we get the infrastructural and financial attention and support from Government, the sky would be the limit for us. We have the potential right here,” Boyce added.
He indicated that he is anticipating the completion of the synthetic track at Leonora so that local athletes will finally be able to access a modern turf. In addition, he said that the AAG will finally be able to benefit from international competition in Guyana because of the facility; he anticipates that the facility will be completed this year to the benefit of local athletes.